While HnR vol 2 is not bad at all (better than vol 1) what a let down that Big City is the last track of Prince's last album. Not the way I think P would have wanted to go out. Would have been much better to end with Revelation.

Yeah, it ain't a great song, is it?

Tbh, I'm always surprised that HNR Phase 2 gets so much praise on here. It's a very beige album to me.

I think it works fine as an "odds and sodds" compliation. Groovey Potential and Black Muse are excellent. The rest is fairly meh to ok but Big City is Temptation-level bad.

MattyJam said:

Yeah, it ain't a great song, is it?

Tbh, I'm always surprised that HNR Phase 2 gets so much praise on here. It's a very beige album to me.

"Big City" is a bop. What the fuq y'all talkin' about? The chorus is uplifting and the storyline is positive.

The hook is fun and inviting, the horns are crisp and velvety, like something from "Sexy MF" and "DMSR."

It reminds me of older vibes especially with the female co-lead harmonies (like "1999" and "Diamonds and Pearls"), the upfront piano ("The Max," "Diamonds and Pearls").

The break after the bridge feels like some "Lady Cab Driver" stuff.

What I like most is that it's open. A lot of his post-Emancipation production was often flattened and compressed. There was no air in his music. Many songs felt dry, parched. "Big City" sounds like a real band affair and not a one-man show. It feels broad and free.

Also very much makes me think of "It's About That Walk" or even "Sarah" with the band call outs, etc.

The last words of that song are, "That's it"

TheEnglishGent said:

The last words of that song are, "That's it"

Yup, I think it's the right end song for his last album in retrispect.

TheEnglishGent said:

The last words of that song are, "That's it"

Exactly:

All of this and more is for you...That's it.

*

Bookends beautiful

emesem said:

TrivialPursuit said:

"Big City" is a bop. What the fuq y'all talkin' about? The chorus is uplifting and the storyline is positive.

The hook is fun and inviting, the horns are crisp and velvety, like something from "Sexy MF" and "DMSR."

It reminds me of older vibes especially with the female co-lead harmonies (like "1999" and "Diamonds and Pearls"), the upfront piano ("The Max," "Diamonds and Pearls").

The break after the bridge feels like some "Lady Cab Driver" stuff.

What I like most is that it's open. A lot of his post-Emancipation production was often flattened and compressed. There was no air in his music. Many songs felt dry, parched. "Big City" sounds like a real band affair and not a one-man show. It feels broad and free.

Also very much makes me think of "It's About That Walk" or even "Sarah" with the band call outs, etc.

I completely agree with U, and as the final song on his final album released while he was alive, it is an upbeat good-bye send-off with the "That's it" ending.

what's not to like? the album pretty much ends on "Revelation" anyway and then
"Big City" comes in, sort of like an encore. one final party vibe with a positive and
cheerful message to wave us out. that's it. indeed. i like it this way.

much like "Come", i expect that "HnR2" will age very well with many fans, over
time.

it restored my faith in Prince albums, together with Art Official Age. Both of them didn't require of me to be working really hard to love it.

I really really don't understand why so many people slag off Baltimore. It's beautiful musically also, great melody, great production, it's probably my favorite track on that album.

It also feels really short, even though there are 6 songs on the album that are shorter

dodger said:

If it wasn't a 'compilation' album and we didn't already have half the songs I think it would be regarded as one of his best. . Revelation is stunning and his final masterpiece. And I absolutely love Look At Me. The only faults to me are Baltimore (weak but strong message) and Screwdriver (doesn't really fit). . I agree with Trivial and like the live band sound and production. I like Big City but it does have a cheese element. I picture a theatre with dancers on stage doing the jazz hands. And The Muppets waving from the stalls.

Frankly, it would've been a fun song for The Muppet Show.

Also, technically a lot of Prince albums are compilations. Removing the element of already released songs, his recording is so expansive as far as time frames sometimes, that to find songs that sound alike to group together is a fair definition of a compilation, of sorts. When "Raspberry Beret" dates 3 years back, or "Pop Life" was recorded before Purple Rain ever saw the light of day... Prince never sat down for a project. It was just recording, whittling down, picking from the past and present.

I do like the updates to "Rock N Roll Love Affair" though.

I like the music in Big City, but the lyrics are a bit corny. "We're in the big city!" Who talks like that?

lurker316 said:

I like the music in Big City, but the lyrics are a bit corny. "We're in the big city!" Who talks like that?

Oh, I dig that whole album so much. Even though a few songs are a weird fit for the record, overall it is (in my view) a real return to form and the most consistently great record he put out in many years. Big City is a big joyful blow-out, awesome closing track and captures that era band really well.

Sequencing wise, it felt like Black Muse / 1000 lightyears is the true ending, but Revelation and Big City are the encore / aftershow part.

Free Yourself, would have been a great ending for HnR 2 . A pitty it wasnt written at that point. I really like HnR 2 . Its a good album. Still carnt get into HnR 1 much. I like about half the tracks on that album

purplethunder3121 said:

lurker316 said:

I like the music in Big City, but the lyrics are a bit corny. "We're in the big city!" Who talks like that?

It's a good point actually.

MattyJam said:

Yeah, it ain't a great song, is it?

Tbh, I'm always surprised that HNR Phase 2 gets so much praise on here. It's a very beige album to me.

I disagree BIG time....I love the song but I also think it is such an apt end. It's jovial, and the end is so ...Princish...where he says "that's it' ...as if this 40 year career just ends this way. sad sad sad but so like him.

IstenSzek said:

what's not to like? the album pretty much ends on "Revelation" anyway and then
"Big City" comes in, sort of like an encore. one final party vibe with a positive and
cheerful message to wave us out. that's it. indeed. i like it this way.

much like "Come", i expect that "HnR2" will age very well with many fans, over
time.

also, the album is FANTASTIC. THe songs are strong...it is very much like SOTT was in taht it was a collectio of great songs of the last 5 years. Superb...i listen to his often and I feel Prince put this out for a reason....i sort of feel he knew his end was near and wanted a strong album to possibly be his last..not that shitty Phase 1

Actually i think considering this is a compilation album, and those things usually are just thrown together with not much plan, this is a sold cohesive effort, and is a perfect ending to an album, might be one of his best closing songs on a record. I think the HIT N RUN efforts were him giving you a feel of what a spur of the moment show might be, that was how i always read these two albums, they are very different in all ways as we know by the varied response to what people think of them.

IstenSzek said:

Personally, I would have ended the album with Revelation.

But there's nothing wrong with Big City.

SantanaMaitreya said:

IstenSzek said:

what's not to like? the album pretty much ends on "Revelation" anyway and then
"Big City" comes in, sort of like an encore. one final party vibe with a positive and
cheerful message to wave us out. that's it. indeed. i like it this way.

much like "Come", i expect that "HnR2" will age very well with many fans, over
time.

That's right. The album goes to a climax with Revelation and then brings the tension down again with a fun, uncomplicated party song. Big City isn't the greatest song he ever wrote, but it works as the closer of the album, a bit like The Dance- Get On the Boat.

exactly, it always reminded me of how he closed the "3121" album

I remember someone saying that was written about them, then people on Twitter I think it was, got into a big argument, with some girls coming on there saying it was written for someone speacil to Prince, not the person who was claiming it was them.

Akthough I watfched, they never did say who it was

IstenSzek said:

SantanaMaitreya said:

IstenSzek said: That's right. The album goes to a climax with Revelation and then brings the tension down again with a fun, uncomplicated party song. Big City isn't the greatest song he ever wrote, but it works as the closer of the album, a bit like The Dance- Get On the Boat.

exactly, it always reminded me of how he closed the "3121" album

I bought HNRII after its physical release in NZ - price 19.99, which did make me smile - a long while after Prince died. And I didn't open it, and didn't open it, for months, and months. Then I got over myself - I suppose - and put it on. I was really taken with the album. It felt like a full circle, structurally, given the manke up of For You. And, as I've mentioned otherwhere on this thread - to go from All this and more...to...that's it. It certainly made for a complete circle.

Just for the sake of being picky, but also because it moved me deeply to write these words on my discography website back then, while Big City was the last track on P's last album, and of course this "that's it" is haunting, there were a few other things released after HnR2, and technically "Black Sweat (Live) was the last recording ever made available by Prince during his lifetime". This Black Sweat performance moves me deeply because of this (it was released as a single on Tidal only 3 days before he passed) and as I said above writing the words above broke my heart

.

Also, and that's often overlooked, while For You (the album) was the first Prince recording ever made available for the public to purchase in 1978, Chris Moon revealed that Prince contributed music to at least "five or six" radio jingles and commercials, including one for a store named "Gigi's", while he was working at Moonsound in 1976. Those recordings would be the first Prince recordings ever made available to the public in the form of radio broadcasts (albeit uncredited, very short and polluted by whichever voices did the advertisement on top of the music). Hopefully, copies of these jingles and commercials have survived and may one day be rediscovered. If Chris Moon or anyone still has these recordings somewhere, they are unvaluable, most likely of no commercial of listening pleasure value, but absolutely crucial in terms of historical documentation.

databank said:

Just for the sake of being picky, but also because it moved me deeply to write these words on my discography website back then, while Big City was the last track on P's last album, and of course this "that's it" is haunting, there were a few other things released after HnR2, and technically "Black Sweat (Live) was the last recording ever made available by Prince during his lifetime". This Black Sweat performance moves me deeply because of this (it was released as a single on Tidal only 3 days before he passed) and as I said above writing the words above broke my heart

.

It always felt very apt to me that the last words on a Prince record were "that's it" and it makes a good story, but his last actual new song released was the bizarre collab Ruff Enuff - an obscure bit of jamming for those who were really paying attention.

As to Big City, I like the song and the way it ends unexpectedly works as the end of his non-posthumously released albums.

.

As to the bizarre-ness of Ruff Enuff.. my daughters are 5 and 7 now. Ruff Enuff is the only song of his they sing along to and they don't often ask me to switch it off, like they do with plenty of other Prince songs. I know, I know, I need to teach them better, just thought I'd throw that anecdote in as a data point.